A DRM security architecture for home networks

Abstract

This paper describes a security architecture allowing digital rights management in home networks consisting of consumer electronic devices. The idea is to allow devices to establish dynamic groups, so called "Authorized Domains", where legally acquired copyrighted content can seamlessly move from device to device. This greatly improves the end-user experience, preserves "fair use" expectations, and enables the development of new business models by content providers. Key to our design is a hybrid compliance checking and group establishment protocol, based on pre-distributed symmetric keys, with minimal reliance on public key cryptographic operations. Our architecture does not require continuous network connectivity between devices, and allows for efficient and flexible key updating and revocation.